Dog Park Drama

I’m in the dog park tonight with Ruby, Search, and Destroy. It’s a giant rectangular grass patch that’s fenced in for…..you guessed it: dogs. There’s this sort of old dugout structure that my boys like to climb inside the dog park.

 We’re standing around with four other dogs and their owners having a great time laughing at the dogs when this kid, maybe eight years old, runs over from a soccer game in the field not far from us. The kid opens the gate and runs over to this dugout wall…the dogs are chasing him and we’re all yelling at the dogs to stop because the dogs love a good chase. The kid makes it but we’re all a little concerned he’s now on this roof and there’s no parent around watching him.

 Next thing you know, 3 more kids come running over, they open the gates and also come inside the dog park. One of them is maybe 4/5 years old. All the puppies in the park are excited and want to jump on these kids…the little one starts screaming….we’re all yelling at the dogs trying to hold them down …an older kid tells us the little guy is afraid of dogs…we’re like “this probably isn’t a great place to be then”.

 Finally, a grownup comes over from the soccer field…the kids still crying and we say “ he’s okay, I think he’s just scared of the dogs…this might not be the best place for him.” 

“Well , get control of your dogs then!!!” He starts screaming at all of us standing there……..IN THE DOG PARK. He comes in the dog park and the kids all want to play on this dugout wall thing….IN THE DOG PARK.

 He continues yelling at us about controlling our dogs. One old lady is like “oh it’s on” she’s about to go all in on this guy….I’m like “don’t, just let it go.” . She says to me “I hope he steps in dog shit then .” 😂

 So my boys are literally holding Ruby, my 14 pound dog so she can’t jump on these kids…IN THE DOG PARK. He yells at us some more. I tell him he’s doing a great job, mostly because I thought he was nuts and I didn’t want to get shot…you never know? I didn’t even know how to respond, it didn’t make any sense. 

He finally left with the kids.

 I thought, for just a second, about bringing Ruby over to the soccer field, dropping her off and letting her run rampant through their game , and then complaining to them for playing soccer, on the soccer field while my dog was trying to play. I restrained myself 🙂 Dog parks are for dogs.